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Law on Free Access to Information must not be a hostage to specific individuals

Data about the allocation of apartments to officials, tax debts of the municipalities, money spent on business trips should be available to public, says Professor Ana Marija Musa who was an expert of the EU Delegation to Montenegro during the preparation of the Draft Law on the Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information.

In the interview for Dnevne novine, Ms Musa says that current situation concerning free access to information isn’t sustainable. Therefore, the new law should be efficient so that citizens can get all the necessary information.

The law should not be a hostage to a group of individuals or authorities failing to obey the law. Although NGO sector and opposition voiced criticism, former information commissioner of the Republic of Croatia, says that Ministry of Public Administration should not withdraw the proposed amendments.

“This is public consultation, it shouldn’t be stopped by eliminating specific solutions in advance. It is necessary to conclude whether the amendments will be functional in practice”, said Ms Musa.

Commenting on the opinion produced by the EU Delegation to Montenegro that the secrecy actually proves to be fertile ground for corruption, Ms Musa says she agrees.

“Of course secrecy provides fertile ground for corruption. Current situation is not sustainable. That’s the result of the practice. For example, information about the public funds management should be made public. However, in practice, citizens, journalists and NGOs don’t usually know which politicians were given apartment, the amount of tax debt of a municipality, or how much money was spent on business trips”, says Ms Musa.

Authorities are not educated enough, there are no publications and guidelines, crucial elements to the proper functioning of information access system. In such circumstances, media and NGO sector are distrustful of any solution.

Ministry of Public Administration and the Government decided to make specific security sector data part of excluded data. In other countries’ practice, the situation is different. Given the fact that such data is of a special kind, Ms Musa thinks that the objective is to prevent somebody from requesting files from their acquaintances and getting details about their life. She sites criminals as an example. Giving away information would affect the procedure and it would make private life of an individual available to public.

“Individual cases are treated according to special law on security system. That’s a rule in many states. Certain countries protect such information. What’s proposed here refers to general information: work reports, statistics, financial data… Data that requires secrecy is protected and available only if allowed by special regulations. It shouldn’t be confused with Parliament’s rights to request information from the security system”, says Ms Musa.

Political parties are not covered by this law, as it refers to government authorities.

“Attempts to “cover” political parties by the law regulating access to information have been harshly criticized in some countries. Application of this law to political parties is considered a means used for political conflicts, especially opposition-government conflicts”, Ms Musa said.

She says that it is necessary to enhance the application of the Law on Financing Political Parties and publishing documents and reports.

“Reports on the amount of money spent by political parties shall be made public”, says Ms Musa.

She points out that this applies to other entities which are mostly financed by public funds and are not considered government authorities.

 

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